The primary contents of women’s fashion magazines are fashion, beauty and
health. This paper sets out to explore the ways in which international fashion
magazines such as Elle, Vogue and Marie Claire portray feminine beauty in
textual and advertising matter and how their readers react to such portrayals.
Beauty is analysed as grooming practice, and make-up as the prime symbol of
the self and its many facets in social interaction. The paper looks at the different
kinds of ‘face’ that magazines invite their women readers to put on and
suggests that they – and their advertisers – adopt a ‘technology of enchantment’
as a means of exercise control over them. Magazine and advertising language is
imbued with ‘magical’ power, and the paper shows how the structure of
advertisements closely parallels that of magical spells used in certain healing
rituals. It concludes by using magazine reader interviews to learn the extent to
which women do or do not believe in such ‘spells’ and whether they are
encouraged to buy into the ‘beauty myth’.

Files in this item: 1

This working paper examines the role of international book fairs in the global publishing industry, and in particular their relation to the publishing cycle, chain and field. It outlines some relevant historical features, as well as main functions, of fairs, before describing in detail the daily activities of an independent academic publisher at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Analysis of the book fair takes place at two levels. The first focuses on the importance of visibility in a fair’s timing and location, as well as in the location and size of participants’ stands, inclusion in the fair catalogue, business deals, and social gatherings. The second examines the book fair as a tournament of values, or ritual tournament, in terms of its framing, membership and currency. The argument presented is that the currency of copyright is not dissimilar to a form of gift exchange and that, as a result, a book is both commodity and gift. It is in the shadow of the gift that the commodity of the book is produced, distributed, sold and read.

Files in this item: 1

This working paper examines the role of international book fairs in the global publishing industry, and in particular their relation to the publishing cycle, chain and field. It outlines some relevant historical features, as well as main functions, of fairs, before describing in detail the daily activities of an independent academic publisher at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Analysis of the book fair takes place at two levels. The first focuses on the importance of visibility in a fair’s timing and location, as well as in the location and size of participants’ stands, inclusion in the fair catalogue, business deals, and social gatherings. The second examines the book fair as a tournament of values, or ritual tournament, in terms of its framing, membership and currency. The argument presented is that the currency of copyright is not dissimilar to a form of gift exchange and that, as a result, a book is both commodity and gift. It is in the shadow of the gift that the commodity of the book is produced, distributed, sold and read.

Files in this item: 1

This working paper examines the role of international book fairs in the global
publishing industry, and in particular their relation to the publishing cycle,
chain and field. It outlines some relevant historical features, as well as main
functions, of fairs, before describing in detail the daily activities of an
independent academic publisher at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Analysis of the
book fair takes place at two levels. The first focuses on the importance of
visibility in a fair’s timing and location, as well as in the location and size of
participants’ stands, inclusion in the fair catalogue, business deals, and social
gatherings. The second examines the book fair as a tournament of values, or
ritual tournament, in terms of its framing, membership and currency. The
argument presented is that the currency of copyright is not dissimilar to a form
of gift exchange and that, as a result, a book is both commodity and gift. It is in
the shadow of the gift that the commodity of the book is produced, distributed,
sold and read.

Files in this item: 1

This paper examines perfume advertising within the overall context of theoretical approaches to the study of smell. Pointing out that smell is marked by a paucity of language, it proceeds to examine how smell is represented in perfume advertisements. Based on an analysis of more than 250 ads worldwide, the paper asks if there are any consistent relations between language, colours and smell materials, as well as between models’ poses, seasons, and classes of perfume (floral, oriental, woody, and so on). It proceeds to survey a number of writings linking colour with smell, and suggests that olfactory marketing should, perhaps, be more consistent in its linking of these two domains in advertising and packaging.

Files in this item: 1

To edit is to make a choice, or series of choices. Will I write a rough draft of this
essay in longhand, or hammer it out on my computer? If the latter, what font
shall I use? Times New Roman, Book Antiqua, or Garamond? Once I get
started, what style shall I adopt: realistic, confessional or impressionistic; or a
combination of all three (Van Maanen 1988)? Should I try to impress with
‘learned scholarship’, or should I merely outline in conversational English a few
thoughts based on my own experiences?...

Files in this item: 1

This paper draws on extensive fieldwork in a wide range of creative industries
to argue that creativity itself is under-theorised, and should be considered as
both enabled and inhibited by numerous constraints guiding the choices made
by creative personnel during the course of their work. Six sets of constraints are
outlined in the context of different forms of cultural production: material,
temporal, spatial, social, representational and economic. It is argued that the
performance of creative work is similar in part to Turner’s concept of
‘communitas’, when an aura of individual creativity is passed to other
participants. This kind of liminal space is also found in creative industry ritual
events, which enable participants to communicate on an equal footing, and gain
knowledge and connections that they can then use at work in their normal
everyday lives. These in turn may have a long-term effect on cultural
production, creativity and constraints.

Files in this item: 1

This essay examines embedded structural tensions in the organization of
Japanese advertising production. Tensions arise from the fact that an
advertising campaign, like many other creative products, is produced by
motley crews of personnel from both within an agency contracted to carry out
the campaign (an account team) and freelance professionals hired to assist in
the creative work required (a production team). The structuring of advertising
account teams in Japan, Europe and the USA depends on how accounts are
distributed by advertising clients. The amount and kind of creativity displayed
by photographers depends on advertising and the structure of fashion
magazine publishing. Creativity itself thus depends on an unspoken set of
institutional power relations that enables individuals to compete for recognition
as being creative .

Files in this item: 1

This essay examines embedded structural tensions in the organization of
Japanese advertising production. Tensions arise from the fact that an
advertising campaign, like many other creative products, is produced by
motley crews of personnel from both within an agency contracted to carry out
the campaign (an account team) and freelance professionals hired to assist in
the creative work required (a production team). The structuring of advertising
account teams in Japan, Europe and the USA depends on how accounts are
distributed by advertising clients. The amount and kind of creativity displayed
by photographers depends on advertising and the structure of fashion
magazine publishing. Creativity itself thus depends on an unspoken set of
institutional power relations that enables individuals to compete for recognition
as being creative .

Files in this item: 1

This paper describes and analyses preparations for the holding of an
anthropologist potter’s one-man show in a Japanese department store. Based on
participant observation, it describes in detail the strategic planning of, and
preparations for, the fieldworker’s own pottery exhibition in a department store
located in northern Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands and
home to a long tradition of porcelain and stoneware production. The paper
focuses on the main players in the ceramic art world; the social interaction
underpinning an exhibition; the conflicting ideals of ‘aesthetics’, display and
money (pricing); and the ways in which different sets of values, and evaluating
processes, affected the reception of the author’s work. It concludes by
developing a theory of values in the light of recent writings in the field of
cultural economics.

This paper looks at creative industry events – in particular fairs and festivals –
and at how they provide a venue for the (re)enactment of institutional
arrangements in a particular industry field, as well as for the negotiation and
affirmation of different values that underpin them. Tracing the study of such
field configuring events back to studies in economic anthropology and
sociology, the authors of the paper argue that it is the notion of values that
underpins fairs, festivals, awards, auctions and similar events. Going beyond
the economist’s notion of ‘Value’ in the singular, the paper posits that, in order
to understand the relationship between culture and economy, we need to
consider a plurality of material/technical, social, situational, appreciative and
functional values when examining how economic Value is derived from
creative products. It is these values that are continuously being (re)negotiated
and transacted by those participating in creative industry fairs and festivals.

Not so many years ago, the fashion industry was called a ‘sunset industry’, and
was deemed to have no future in the most developed countries. But recently,
the New York Times has suggested that ‘the sun never sets on the runway’
(Wilson, 2008). Under this heading the article described the diffusion of fashion
week organizations, with accompanying fashion shows, that are no longer
limited to a handful of fashion capitals, but are spreading to small-country
capitals and medium-sized cities all around the world.

Files in this item: 1

This working paper examines the field of Japanese publishing through a single
event – the Tokyo International Book Fair – and analyses the part played by the
three main players in the publishing industry: publishing houses, wholesale
distributors, and bookstores and other retail outlets. It argues that the mutual
relationships between the three are supported by two structural factors, the
consignment sales and resale price maintenance (RPM) systems, before
comparing the latter with the Net Book Agreement (NBA) that operated in the
UK publishing industry for almost the whole of the 20th century. In conclusion,
taking into account the rise of Internet retailing and the growth of Japanese
chain retail stores, it tries to looks at what effect the abolition of RPM might
have on the field of Japanese publishing.